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Serena van der Woodsen
Serena van der Woodsen is a character in The CW's teen drama Gossip Girl, and the book series of the same name. One of the foremost players, the character is portrayed by Blake Lively in the television series. Television Series Season One When first introduced in the show's pilot episode, Serena is returning from a self-imposed year at boarding school in Connecticut. She is the daughter of Lily van der Woodsen, a wealthy socialite. Serena also has a troubled younger brother called Eric. Lily and Serena were first seen living in the New York Palace Hotel, while Eric was in a clinic after a suicide attempt. While Eric was the real reason for Serena's abrupt return, other rumours came about. After some effort, the former It Girl reunited with her estranged best friend Blair Waldorf, who didn't know Serena was leaving for boarding school until she was already gone. However, their friendship was shattered shortly afterwards when Blair finds out that shortly before she left town, a drunken Serena slept with Blair's boyfriend, Nate Archibald, who supposedly always had a thing for Serena. This leads to the two girls being locked in a rivalry once again. Meanwhile, Serena meets and goes out on a date with Brooklyn outsider Dan Humphrey after he returned her lost cellphone. The date ends up with them heading to the Dan's father's concert, but they are interrupted when his sister Jenny repeatedly texts Dan asking for help. When Dan and Serena show up at the Kiss on the Lips party they blew off, they find Chuck Bass all over Jenny. Dan punches Chuck, while Serena warns Chuck to stay away from Jenny. In response, Chuck calls Serena a slut and tells her that her life is over. At the Ivy Mixer, Blair incorrectly tells everyone that Serena is a patient at the Ostroff Center for a drug addiction. To save her brother the embarrassment, Serena plays along. When Eric tells Blair what really happened, she and Serena reconcile after Blair shows her an unsent letter. Dan and Serena's relationship is quite solid, but he hates the glamorous nature of her lifestyle. Serena continuosly tries to show him how much she's trying to change from her old ways. Serena then finds out that Rufus Humphrey, Dan's father, and Lily are trying to restart their old relationship. Serena pleads with her mother not to go through with it because of her feelings for Dan. This results in Lily accepting a marriage proposal from Bart Bass, Chuck's father. When Serena and Chuck's families are both sampling wedding dinners, an anonymous package full of pornography arrives for Serena. Thinking that Chuck is behind it, Serena naturally becomes angry with him. Shortly afterwards, several crates of champagne are sent to Serena at school, and yet again she believes it was sent by Chuck, who denies it. Serena becomes more furious when Eric brings her another anonymous package, which turns out to be cocaine. Only when Chuck is kicked out by his dad does Serena discover that it wasn't him sending the packages at all, but a former friend called Georgina Sparks. Georgina has recently returned from rehab in Switzerland, and expects her friendship with Serena to be back to its old state. However, Serena insists that she's not the same person anymore, knowing how much trouble she and Georgina used to get into. Not liking this, Georgina persuades Serena to go out with her, and spikes her drink with liquid ecstacy when Serena isn't looking. Serena wakes up the next morning, having missed her SATs. Realising that Georgie was behind it, Serena confronts her, letting Georgina know that their friendship is officially over. Furious, Georgina brings up a scandal they were both involved in. Serena leaves her apartment distressed, while hiding everything from Dan. This leads to Georgina calling herself 'Sarah' and starting up a friendship with Dan, who has no clue about her true identity. Georgina gives Serena a flash drive, supposedly containing footage of the real reason Serena left Manhattan. At a dinner with the Lily, Eric and Serena, Georgina 'accidentally' lets it slip that Eric is gay. Serena supports her brother while Lily doesn't know how to react. When Serena goes to meet Sarah, Dan's new friend, Serena is shocked to discover that it's actually Georgina. Georgina then threatens to show Dan the tape, and tells Serena that either they rekindle their friendship the way it was left, or everything will be revealed. With no-one else to turn to, Serena tells Blair her secret: she killed someone. Immediately after this, Serena leaves for a club and parties hard, leaving with several guys. Blair spends all night trying to find Serena, but eventually finds her and brings her back to the Waldorf's apartment. Blair enlists the help of Chuck and Nate, even though things are still tense between the three of them. Dan shows up looking for Serena, and the other three say that she doesn't want to see him. Still, Dan refuses to leave, until Serena goes to talk to him herself. Dan asked if she slept with someone else, and Serena says "Yes." In response, Dan says "I'm done" and leaves the apartment. Serena tells the others that she didn't actually sleep with anyone else, but it was better than knowing the real truth. Blair convinces Serena to tell her, Chuck and Nate the full story behind the night she supposedly killed someone. On the night that Serena and Nate slept together, Serena went to a hotel room afterwards, shocked by what she had just done. Also in the hotel room is Georgina and a coke addict, Pete. Georgina briefly leaves the room and Serena and Pete start making out, but Serena gets uncomfortable and eventually suggests that they both take some cocaine to get in the mood. Pete does a line, overdoses, and has a violent seizure. Both Serena and Georgina panic, and when Serena tries to call 911, Georgina stops her because of all the drugs in the room and the fact that they're underage. The whole incident is caught on tape by Georgina. As the two girls rush from the hotel, Serena calls 911 anyway and is unable to help but watch from across the street, waiting for Pete to come out relatively unharmed. Instead, he leaves in a body bag. A horrified Serena blames herself for Pete's death as she was the one who suggested he do the coke in the first place. Meanwhile, Lily finds the tape in Serena's dresser and watches it most of the way through. Thinking it's just a sex tape, and a recent one, she switches it off right before Pete's death occurs. Lily thinks the best path of action is to send Serena to a reformatory school, and tells her this at the rehearsal dinner for Lily and Bart's wedding. Blair tries to reason with Lily, telling her that Serena is in a lot of pain and has been hiding a dark secret. Serena eventually tells her mother the whole story, and they talk to Pete's parents, who don't blame her at all for Pete's death. Her guilt absolved, Serena goes to a concert featuring Rufus in order to win Dan back. She just misses Dan but gets a call from him at the concert. It's Georgina at the other end of the line, but Serena says that she's ready to tell the full truth, so she doesn't care about Georgina's blackmail threat. An enraged Georgina pulls Dan outside, still pretending to be Sarah, and kisses him. Confused and hurt, Serena is left wondering at the concert. Season 2 The first episode of the second season begins in the Hamptons, where Serena is rumored to be dating Nate but is in fact a ruse for Nate to have affair with an older woman. Meanwhile, she reflects throughout the summer and Dan cannot stop thinking about Serena, resolving to go to the Hamptons. After a few mishaps during the White party, two resume their relationship. The couple's return to New York has them return to old issues as Dan gives in to the polarity of their relationship being strained because of Serena's wealthy background and Dan's inability to accept the polarity of their relationship. The two end their relationship at an elevator during Blair's party, having succumbed to their issues during a blackout (The Dark Night). Gossip Girl cites the new school year, Serena's newly single status, and a possible return of Serena as the Queen Bee of Constance. Serena however, attempts to adjust to a friendlier relationship with Dan, she is hurt to find out that he has easily moved on from their relationship when he starts dating Amanda, a new student. Blair intervenes by torturing Amanda to separate her from Dan. Serena apologizes to both Dan and Amanda for Blair's actions and the three have drinks, where Blair's clique continues to meddle in their problems by setting her up with a Dalton student. Dan gradually realizes Serena is hurt but assumes that she is ruining his date with Amanda. Serena lashes out at Dan by telling Dan to leave, hurt by Dan's assumption. Isabel and Penelope ruin the night by throwing a Nairtini at Amanda. A frustrated Amanda leaves and Dan lashes out at Serena, who is innocent of the incident but Dan angrily tells her that she should own up to her real self. Serena, angered at Dan's accusation, confronts Blair's clique and tells them that the next time that they mess with Dan, it has to go through her first. Her statement indicates her return as an Queen Bee. The next morning brings back Serena and Blair's old rivalry, as the girls fawn over Serena and when Blair arrives Serena ties a bandanna around Blair neck, symbolically stating Serena's status as Queen. Serena publicly ostracizes Dan at the courtyard connecting Constance and St. Jude's, followed by Blair's clique. Serena and Blair's rivalry escalates during Fashion Week as the girls continue to fawn over Serena having seen her with Poppy Lifton, he new socialite friend and Serena earns public praise and media attention. Blair's attempts at winning her friends by inviting them at Eleanor's fashion show. Serena tries to reconcile with Blair but Blair turns her down. Blair is upset when she realizes that her mother has given Serena and Poppy Lifton, her new socialite friend, front row seats at her show. Blair again feels that her mother loves Serena more than her, and is angry that Serena will not be backstage with her as usual. Blair tries to sabotage the fashion show but it ends up being a huge success; this makes Blair even more jealous. In "New Haven Can Wait," Serena, angry at Blair, decides to watch her own back and attend an interview at Yale, where Blair always dreamed of attending. Serena was given a personal acceptance from the school's dean and is invited to his house for a special party. Though uninivited, Blair bribes her way into the party. After a game goes wrong, Serena and Blair decide they can never be friends and part ways. Serena begins a romance with Aaron Rose, an artist and Blair's new step-brother. She accepts his offer to travel to Argentina with him but they break up soon into the flight. Toward the end of the season, Serena begins a relationship with Gabriel, a man who is friends with Poppy Lifton. After getting her parents and their Upper East Side friends to invest in Gabriel's business that donates computers to third world countries, Serena realizes that both he and Poppy are conning them. She and the newly born-again Christian Georgina Sparks hatch a plan to catch them. However, the plan does not work out when Lily gets her daughter arrested. Gabriel and Poppy escape. In the final episode of the season "The Goodbye Gossip Girl," Gossip Girl sends a blast during their graduation commencement ceremony. Serena, angry that Gossip Girl has ruined the day, vows to find out who she is. They don't, however, uncover her and accept that they will never know her identity. At the end of the episode, Carter Baisen, a friend of Serena, tells her she has found the whereabouts of her father. Serena decides to go with Carter to meet him. Serena has been given a place at Brown, her mother's alma mater. Season 3 At the beginning of the season during the summer, Serena had been searching for her father and is in a relationship with Carter Baizen, and goes back to her partying ways. She decides to not go to Brown for another year, and gets a job at a publicist. Blair and Serena get into a feud, which is patched up by Nate and Chuck. Later, Serena gets a job in the office of Trip Van der Bilt, who is Nate's cousin, and is running for office as mayor of New York. Trip and Serena later have a relationship, even though Trip is married to Maureen. He tells Serena that he doesn't love Maureen and will leave her. Serena follows him out of town. Maureen however finds them, and bribes Serena with a letter from Serena's father, that contains gossip about Lily. Maureen says that Serena can be Trip's mistress, saying that she "will be Jackie Kennedy" and Serena "Marilyn Monroe. Serena refuses and tells Maureen that Trip will stay with her. However, when she finds out that Trip wants to stay with Maureen for his political career, she asks Trip to drive her back to New York. They have a car accident, and Serena is taken to hospital. Nate shouts at Trip and stays with Serena in the hospital. At present, Serena is living at Blair Waldorf's and is in a relationship with Nate. At the brink of the season, a scheming Jenny Humphrey attempted to steal Nate from Serena as she developed feelings for him. Eventually, Serena found about her scheming acts and it strained both her (Jenny) relationship with Serena and perhaps, Nate. In addition, Serena finally got to meet her long, lost father for the first time with the help of her ex-boyfriend Carter. Serena meets her father when her mother is diagnosed with cancer. However, it is revealed that she really wasn't and William van der Woodsen (William Baldwin) was using this as a scheme. Although Nate calls the police on William, Serena helps him escape. In the season finale, Serena and Dan share a "meaningless" kiss which leads her to break-up with Nate. She leaves for Paris with Blair, both dignifying themselves as beautiful, single, carefree women. Family *Lily Humphrey (Mother) *William van der Woodsen (Father) *Eric van der Woodsen (Younger Brother) *Celia 'Cece' Rhodes (Maternal Grandmother) *Rick Rhodes (Maternal Grandfather, deceased) *Carol Rhodes (Maternal Aunt) *Chuck Bass (Adoptive Brother) *Bart Bass (StepFather, deceased) *Jack Bass (Former StepUncle) *Rufus Humphrey (StepFather) *Dan Humphrey (StepBrother) *Jenny Humphrey (StepSister) *Scott Ronsson (Maternal Half Brother) Romantic relationships * Nate Archibald (childhood unrequited love) * Dan Humphrey (Began dating in 1.01 'Pilot', and broke up in 1.17 'Woman on the Verge', as Serena lied and said she slept with someone else.) * Aaron Rose * Gabriel Edwards (Began dating in 2.21 'Seder Anything', and broke up 2.22 'Southern Gentlemen Prefer Blondes') * Carter Baizen Etymology *Serena can be traced in its origin in the Latin language. The word is a derivative of the word 'Serenus' and the meaning that can be figured out from the use of the word is something that is 'clear, tranquil and serene'. *van der Woodsen is likely Dutch in origin. The Dutch term "van" or the German term "von" were used at the beginning of the phrase. Sometimes in Dutch phraseology, "de," "der," or "ter" was inserted, meaning "of" or "of the". Category:Characters